Kindness of Strangers
by SasuNarufan13
Summary: To cheer up their son, Minato and Kushina organise a party for him. When the party doesn't go as expected, Kushina vents her frustrations in her blog. Her rant has some unexpected, very pleasant results. Kushina's pov; alternate universe; temporary physical disability; slash; more warnings inside


**Author's note: Yes, here I am again with another random oneshot. *throws hands up* I don't know, my brain's in a weird mood lately. Also despite what it may look like, I really love Naruto LOL **

**Warnings: Kushina's pov; Alternate universe; temporary physical disability; not that much knowledge about the medicine world, so if sounds weird, my apologies; slash; a bit of drama; a bit of angst; foul language; fluff; time skip at the end. I think that's it, let me know if I missed a warning!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.**

**Dedicated to: Meehalla. I hope this makes you feel at least somewhat better!**

**I hope you'll like it!**

* * *

**Kindness of Strangers**

"How many more balloons do you want?" Minato popped his head into the kitchen, a light blue balloon held in his left hand.

"How many are there so far?" Kushina asked absently, putting the last bit of the orange frosting in the piping bag. She glanced at the cupcakes waiting on the tray and nodded. That should be enough frosting.

"Twenty-five," he answered. "That enough?"

"Yeah, that's enough," she chuckled and handed the piping bag over to her son, who eagerly accepted it. "Don't want to trip over the balloons. Here, Naruto, you know you need to be careful when putting the frosting on the cupcakes, okay? Don't want to spill too much."

"I know, mum!" he beamed and his tongue peeked out from between his lips when he started working on the first cupcake; his forehead furrowed in concentration.

"Any other decorations that still needs to be hung up?" Minato questioned, bobbing the balloon between his hands.

"No, I think that's it. You put up the streamers too, yeah?"

"Yeah, did that before the balloons."

"Then the decorating the room part is finished," she smiled, moving over to the oven to take the vanilla and raspberry cake out of it when the oven beeped.

"Anything I can help with here?" he inquired after he'd put the balloon away in the living room.

She looked down at the cake cooling off on the counter and then to the bowl with melted chocolate. She promptly pushed the bowl to him.

"Here, you can put the chocolate on the cake and I'm going to open the bag of sweets and divide them over the bowls," she said cheerfully.

"So, I'm getting the messiest task, huh?" he said dryly, but nevertheless carefully put the cake in front of him and plucked a spatula out of the drawer. "So how many people are coming?"

"Twelve people let me know they were coming, so a bit more than half of his class will show up," she answered, ripping the bag open. "I'm glad that many can come; Naruto needs the distraction."

A month ago Naruto had got into a terrible accident when he'd been playing at a neighbour's house. Their dog had escaped and Naruto had gone after him, snatching him off the street before he could get any further. He'd been almost back on the footway when a car had sped into the street and had hit him; the driver having lost the control over his steering wheel. Naruto had been thrown into the air and had landed badly.

He'd been left with a severe head wound and the nerves in his back ended up pinched, leaving him with temporary paralysed legs. The doctors had assured her and Minato that their son would be able to walk again with physical therapy, but those first couple of days after the accident had been a complete and utter terrifying nightmare for them, not knowing whether their baby boy would end up paralysed for life.

Two weeks after the accident, the doctors had declared Naruto well enough to leave the hospital. He had to use a wheelchair now, but he'd started physical therapy two weeks ago, four times a week, and his sensei, Tsunade, was feeling optimistic about it, believing he'd be able to walk again in three to five months if his progress kept being this good.

Not for the first time Kushina was glad her husband worked at the same hospital as Tsunade. The older woman was a well sought out doctor, famous for her revalidation methods, and normally her waiting list was two years long. She was fond of Minato, however, and as soon as she'd heard about the accident and the prognosis, she'd offered to help Naruto with his physical therapy. Thanks to her their son would soon be able to walk again and Kushina was still trying to figure out what kind of present would be good enough to thank the doctor.

For now, though, Naruto still had to use his wheelchair and the boy was understandably disappointed about that. To cheer him up, she and Minato had decided to organise a party for him, inviting his entire class. Not everyone was able to come, but twelve people was still a good number and this way, Naruto would get some much needed distraction and fun after weeks of hospital visits.

She also hoped the party would reassure Naruto that his classmates wouldn't think him odd for being in a wheelchair now. He was friends with some people in his class – none at best friend level yet as far as she knew – but ever since getting out of the hospital, he'd been worrying that the class would consider him a freak for having to use the wheelchair, afraid they would start treating him differently from now on.

Hopefully the party today would make all those worries and fears disappear.

"They're supposed to show up around one, yeah?" Minato asked absently, using the spatula to carefully slather the sides of the cake with the chocolate.

"Yeah, one thirty at the latest," she confirmed and went to check on Naruto, who'd finished around half of the cupcakes so far. "How are you doing here, honey? Is it going okay?"

"Yep, can you put the sprinkles on top, mum?" he requested, picking up the next cupcake to decorate. "I want mine with the orange ones!"

"Of course, I haven't forgotten," she chuckled and while Naruto set about finishing squeezing frosting on the remaining cupcakes, she started putting sprinkles on the rest, making sure there were enough of the orange coloured ones on her son's cupcakes.

While Naruto chattered about the boardgames and the films he'd set up in preparation for his party, Kushina met Minato's eyes above their son's head, sharing a smile.

Yeah, she had a good feeling about this party.

* * *

"And?"

She turned around after closing the door and leant against it, tugging at the end of her ponytail in frustration. "No, nobody yet," she muttered and checked her watch again. A quarter to two but so far none of Naruto's classmates had shown up yet.

"I've heard of being fashionably late, but this is getting ridiculous," she growled, stepping away from the door. "I already gave them a half an hour of leeway – shouldn't that have been more than enough?"

Minato frowned. "Did anyone contact you yet?"

"I'm going to check. Can you keep Naruto distracted?"

"Yeah, sure," he smiled at her reassuringly before disappearing into the living room where Naruto was setting up one of his boardgames on the table.

Taking a deep breath, she went back to the kitchen where she'd left her phone behind. Trepidation sitting low in her stomach like a brick, she clicked on the button and watched the screen come to life.

No missed calls or messages from parents apologising for being late.

"Damn it!" she hissed, smacking the phone down on the counter. Where the hell were they?

All twelve of them had reassured her they would be able to make it – why then was it nearly an hour after the party was supposed to start with all of them still absent?

One parent could be late, maybe even two – but had all twelve of them left so late they weren't able to make it on time? If so, why not call her? Hell, even a text would be appreciated!

"Did anyone contact you?" Minato asked, keeping his voice low enough not to attract the attention from their humming son.

She scowled at him before looking away, her hands curling into fists on top of the kitchen counter. "No, nobody," she muttered, staring at the beautifully decorated cake awaiting the arrival of their guests.

Surely they would show up? Her stomach twisted uncomfortably at the thought that nobody would –

No, she couldn't think that. Of course they would show up – they'd promised after all and while the children might be oblivious, the parents knew how important this party was for Naruto.

"Let's give them until two thirty," she sighed, turning around to brace herself against the cold edge of the counter.

He ran his hand through her ponytail before kissing her softly on her forehead. "What if they still haven't shown up by then?" he asked apprehensively.

She gripped his shirt tightly and pursed her lips together. Honestly? She had no idea what they would do if nobody showed up.

Someone had to, right?

* * *

Watching a clock had never filled her with as much dread as it was doing now. While she and Minato distracted Naruto by watching his favourite film with him, her eyes kept darting to the clock on the wall, where its hands were slowly moving towards the number three. Every time she heard a car drive by, she tensed up, her ears pricked just in case they would stop nearby.

The cars never did.

As the minute hand landed on the three, her heart sank when the doorbell still hadn't rung. Her phone was waiting next to her on the couch's arm, but it was silent too, almost mockingly so.

_Give it five more minutes_, she told herself, forcing herself to focus on the film again. _Just five more minutes._

At two thirty-five, she promised herself another five minutes and then surely someone would come. Those five minutes turned into ten, then fifteen, then twenty …

Ten past three.

_Nobody was coming._

That realisation hit her like a slap in the face and she had to bite down harshly on her inner cheek to keep from screaming in frustration. When she looked at Minato, she saw him sitting with a blank look on his face and anger burning in those otherwise calm blue eyes.

The party meant to cheer up Naruto had turned into an utter disappointment.

_Fuck them all._

"Nobody's coming, are they?" Naruto asked flatly; his hands lying listlessly on his lap.

"Naruto …" She reached out to hug him, but he shrunk into himself, and she stopped, looking at him helplessly.

"It's okay, mum. We can eat the cupcakes and the cake on our own," he said and the smile he gave her was so obviously fake, plastered on just to make her feel better, that it made her want to drive to those parents' houses and bash their heads against the walls one by one.

Maybe then they would have an inkling of just how much they had hurt her son by not showing up! They didn't even have the decency to call her and tell her they wouldn't be coming over – why had they even agreed to come if they weren't planning on actually doing it?

"Maybe they just forgot that the party was today," Naruto went on, rubbing his hands over his thighs. "I sometimes forget important things too!"

"Yeah, they probably forgot that it was today," Minato went along with it and stood up, putting on a cheerful face. "We'll call them to arrange a new party soon. For now, how about you and I make a start on demolishing our cupcakes? We've still got to finish the second film before we can start on your game, after all! Can't have our party schedule messed up too much because of some forgetful people!"

"That's true!" Naruto nodded enthusiastically; his eyes sparking weakly. "You're going to watch the second film with us, mum?"

"Yeah, you can start it already; I have to do something else first, but I'll be back soon," she promised and ruffled his hair before getting up and leaving the room.

She went straight to what had been dubbed her hobby room and which basically contained all her little art projects, including clothes she'd sewn herself, and her laptop. It was still open on her desk in sleep mode; she'd been planning on adding the cake recipe to the blog she'd started running three years ago, figuring it would make a nice memory.

Of course that had been before those dickheads had all decided to leave her son hanging.

She snatched her pin cushion off the shelf and threw it across the room, putting as much force behind it as she could. It bounced against the wall before plopping down on the floor, landing on a lime green pillow she'd been considering using in her next art project.

Throwing that pin cushion did exactly nothing to alleviate her fury, but she also wasn't in the mood to clean up afterwards if she threw something heavier. Breathing heavily, rage coursing white hot through her veins, making her legs tremble with the force of it, she dropped down heavily in her chair and pulled her laptop out of its sleep mode. She went straight to her blog and started typing, pouring all her frustration and rage into the post.

**So far the party cheer**

_Hey everyone,_

_First of all, I'm sorry but this blog post doesn't contain the recipe I promised or even the art project I've nearly finished. I need to get something of my chest right now, so if you're not interested in a furious rant of a very disappointed mum, I suggest you skip this post and wait until my next blog for a more cheerful post._

_For the ones still staying after my warning: I mentioned in my previous blog that I would be busy this weekend with organising a party for my son and his friends. As you might remember if you've read my previous posts, my son had been in an accident a month ago, leaving him to use a wheelchair for the time being and in need of physical therapy (thank you so much to everyone who left me encouraging comments and best wishes; they really helped us cheer up!)._

_In order to cheer up our son, my husband and I had decided to throw him a party, inviting over his entire class. Twelve parents let me know their children would be able to make it, which is more than half of his class, so of course we were excited about that! No better way to distract our son than to have his friends coming over to play games and share a lot of sweets!_

_At least, that's what we thought._

_You see, the party was supposed to start today and we'd expected the children to arrive between one and one thirty. "Supposed to" and "expected" – it's currently 15.27 p.m. and not one person showed up._

_**Not one.**_

_They didn't text us or call us, didn't let us know they weren't planning on showing up at all. Twelve children invited, yet nobody showed up._

_Do you have any idea how hard it is to see the excited smile drop off your son's face when he realises nobody is coming after all? That he's being ditched at his own party, a party meant to reassure him that being in a wheelchair doesn't make him any different, that it doesn't make him a freak like he worries he is now._

_You have no idea just how furious I am right now. How much I have to restrain myself not to drive over to those parents' houses and give them a piece of my mind. To all these people who ditched my son: __**fuck you**__. I hope you feel good about yourselves for crushing a young boy's hope. You fucking dickheads!_

_I'm going to leave it at this, before I really explode. Wish me luck, guys; I'm going to try to salvage whatever's left of this party. Come Monday, though, some people are going to answer to me._

_Sorry for the rant, next time I promise I'll post the recipe of the cake and hopefully have it be a more cheerful post._

_Until next time, loves._

_Red K._

* * *

She was putting the rest of the cupcakes in Tupperware boxes – even with all three of them having a major sweet tooth, they couldn't possibly eat all those cupcakes at once – when the doorbell rang all of a sudden, startling her into nearly dropping a cupcake.

Frowning, she glanced at the clock, noting that it was four o'clock. Who could that possibly be still? The kids they had invited? She snorted quietly; yeah, she somehow doubted that.

Still, she went into the hallway, waving off Minato, who nodded and went back to the couch. Stroking some wayward strands of hair out of her face, she opened the door.

And blinked when she was greeted by the sight of a blonde girl, somewhere in her late teens, whose hair was put up in four short pigtails and was dressed in a mini jeans skirt and a tight black tank top. In her left hand she held a white shopping bag and her right one gripped the hand of a younger boy with short, flaming red hair. The boy peered up at her with deep green eyes; his pale skin looking a bit out of sort next to the tanned one of the girl.

"Ehm, hello," Kushina said slowly, confused as to what these two were doing here. She thought she recognised the girl as the one working at the bakery during the weekends, but she was at a loss as to why she was here now.

"Hello, Mrs. K," the girl greeted her cheerfully. "I know this comes out of the blue, but I'm a big fan of your blog – especially your recipes – and when I read what you wrote today, I just couldn't let that pass. Nobody deserves to be ditched at their party, especially not a sweet kid like your son. My brother here, Gaara, loves your blog too – especially the gardening articles your son helps you with." Here she smirked as Gaara blushed fiercely.

"Temari-neechan, shut up," he groused, glaring down at the ground.

Unfazed she continued, "Anyway, I figured my brother and I could come to your party instead! I even brought some pastries from the bakery with me, the ones I know your son likes. Unless you prefer to be alone with your family now, which we would - "

"No, please, come in!" Kushina immediately cut her off, waving them both excitedly inside. "You have no idea how happy I am now. I'm so glad my son will have some people at his party now and I'm sure he'll be excited too!"

She could hardly believe it! These two had actually showed up after reading her blog, all to cheer up her son! Two complete – well, not really complete – strangers showed more care for Naruto than his own classmates. That was sad, but at this moment all she could think of was that the party wasn't completely lost yet.

It was later than they had intended, but Naruto would finally get his party.

"Hey, just because other people are jerks, doesn't mean everyone is," Temari said, kicking off her dark blue heels. "Thank you for having us, Mrs. K."

"Call me Kushina," she chuckled and waved them further inside. "We've set up the party in the living room. You can set up the pastries on the table there and I'll bring out the rest of the treats."

While Gaara wandered into the living room, looking somewhat shy, Temari grinned at her. "I hope you have made enough treats, Kushina-san. I've shared the blog with everyone I know, so more people might show up!"

"That would honestly be amazing, but I'm already over the moon with having you two here," Kushina grinned.

The afternoon might have taken a shitty start, but it was definitely looking up now.

* * *

Temari hadn't lied when she said she'd shared Kushina's blogpost with everyone she knew. After the two siblings had arrived, causing her son's face to bloom with excitement, more and more people started showing up, all there to celebrate Naruto's progress and cheer him up.

Some brought gifts with them, like stuffed toys, footballs, boardgames, books about gardening while others showed up with cakes, pastries and other sweets. Soon they had to set up an extra table, just to display all the food and clear some space in the corner where guests could put their presents.

With every new person who showed up – some as young as seven years old while others were elderly, doting on Naruto like they were his grandparents – Naruto grew more and more excited, his grin so big, Kushina was surprised his cheek muscles were aching yet. If he'd been able to, he would probably be jumping around the room, zooming around, going from one guest to the next. As it was, he still wheeled himself over quickly to anyone he wanted to talk to or who went to greet him.

He seemed to have taken an extra liking to Gaara, though, because the two boys stuck together mostly, talking quietly during the moments Naruto wasn't chattering to someone else.

"This is one hell of a party," Minato chuckled, popping up next to her with a half-eaten slice of cake. It was the chocolate and vanilla one that Mrs. Sohma had brought with her.

"I still can't believe all these people showed up!" Kushina replied excitedly, clasping her hands together. She'd been going back and forth between the kitchen and the living room to bring more juice, coffee and tea, and while her feet were starting to ache a bit, she paid no heed to them.

Never in her wildest dreams had she dared to imagine that this would be the result of her posting her rant online. They had started out with an empty room, but now it was jampacked and they even had to set open the door to the garden so people wouldn't feel like they were squished together in a tight space.

Naruto's classmates were still a no show – and she definitely would have words with the parents on Monday – but her son was no longer sad about that. He seemed to have forgotten his previous disappointment as he flitted from one person to the next, grinning and laughing and letting younger children take place in his wheelchair for a little bit while he sat down on a chair or the couch.

It made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that her son was happy now. It took a bunch of strangers to do that, but they made it work.

The doorbell rang again and she grinned. "I'll go open it. Can you fill up the coffee can again? I think it's nearly empty."

"Sure, love," Minato smiled and pecked her cheek before wrestling his way through the crowd to take the empty can from the table.

She slipped around several groups and hurried to the door, rubbing her hands down her skirt, before opening the door. "Good evening!" she greeted, but her smile froze when she realised just who was standing in front of her.

The mayor of their town stood on her porch, flanked by her two sons. She was dressed in a simple black dress and her black hair was pulled up in a casual bun. She held out a box filled with ramen cups to Kushina with a smile.

"Good evening, Uzumaki-san. I hope we're not too late yet for the party," Uchiha Mikoto smiled gently. "I'm a fan of your blog, but I only had time to read it twenty minutes ago. These are my two sons, Itachi and Sasuke. I thought it'd be nice to bring them with me; Sasuke's the same age as your son and Itachi wanted to tag alone." Her eyes shone with amusement.

"How could you expect me to miss the moment my otouto meets the boy he's so crazy about?" Itachi drawled, smirking, and remained unflinching when Sasuke glared at him and punched his arm.

"Nii-san, shut up! You don't know what you're talking about!" he hissed, his cheeks pinking.

_The mayor was at her house._

Kushina thought her brain had just exploded. She could only stand there and gape, wondering whether she had somehow fallen asleep while getting something from the kitchen. Because that was the only explanation as to why the freaking mayor could be possibly standing right in front of her now!

Holy shit, the mayor was right in front of her!

With her two sons!

"Who's at the door, love?" Minato showed up behind her and thank god for her husband, because he didn't freak when he saw who was standing on their porch. "Good evening, Uchiha-san. You're here for the party?"

"Call me Mikoto, please," she smiled warmly. "And yes, I know it's rather late already, but unfortunately work wouldn't allow me to read your wife's blog earlier." She looked a bit sheepish and not at all like the stern woman they showed on television during the news.

"No worries, we're already happy you decided to visit!" Minato grinned jovially, remaining completely unruffled despite the presence of this particular guest. He nodded at the box with ramen cups. "Is that for Naruto?"

"Yes, Sasuke told me your son had mentioned in the blog a couple of times that he loves ramen, so I figured this would be a nice way to cheer him up." She cocked her head to the right, listening to the chattering and laughing in the room next to them. "Although I guess I'm a bit late with that."

"Trust me, when he sees this box, Naruto will be over the moon," Minato reassured, grinning, and waved them inside. "Please come in, make yourselves at home! We've got all kinds of sweets and we're thinking of ordering pizza next."

"That sounds great!" Mikoto smiled and nodded at her two sons. "Come on, dears, let's go inside."

Sasuke, Kushina noticed, rushed into the living room while Itachi and Mikoto followed at a more sedate pace, both wearing a fond smile.

"Kushina, you're okay?" Minato looked at her concerned and closed the door.

"_The mayor is at our house, Minato,"_ she answered in a strangled voice, slapping herself just to make sure she was really awake. Holy shit, she was.

"Yes, she is," he confirmed calmly. He hugged her and kissed her lips. "And all that because you didn't want to see our son unhappy. I'd say you did a good job."

"I did, didn't I?" she mused and hugged him back, pressing her face in his neck. She breathed in his soothing scent and smiled. "Guess this party isn't over by a long shot."

"Not at all," he laughed. "Should I go around and collect pizza orders?"

"Yes, please. A Hawaiian one for me! I'm going to make another run for drinks."

They would definitely have to do another grocery run on Monday, but hell, this was totally worth it.

* * *

Naruto ended up with two boys stuck to his side for the rest of the evening: Gaara and Sasuke.

Kushina knew the Uchiha sent their children to a more prestigious school on the other side of the town, but when looking at the three boys together, one would never guess they hadn't met each other before. Sasuke especially appeared completely at ease, which is something Kushina had been having some doubts about when he first showed up.

The kids from the prestigious school tended to be rather snobby after all, but Sasuke wasn't anything like that – or if he was, at least he wasn't around Naruto and Gaara, which was the most important thing as far as she was concerned.

As she watched them promise each other to meet up again soon, Sasuke going as far as to give his telephone number and his class schedule so Naruto would know when he was free, she could only grin and bite back the treacherous hot tears threatening to escape.

Even with dickheads as classmates, Naruto would be fine, she knew. He'd made two new friends at his party tonight and she had a feeling these two wouldn't abandon her son.

Her house had been full with strangers tonight, but these strangers had shown her family infinitely more kindness than she'd ever expected and she would be forever grateful to them.

Because they had made her son happy and nothing was more important than that to her.

"Think we're going to see more of those two?" Minato murmured in her ear, slipping his arms around her from behind.

She covered his hands with hers and squeezed them softly. "Yeah, I really think we will," she smiled.

She had a very good feeling about that.

* * *

Her good feeling turned out to be right, because years later the three boys – now young men – were still best friends

Between Naruto and Sasuke something else had blossomed as well, a fact she crowed about when they finally informed her and Minato about their relationship: Naruto with tomato red cheeks and a slight stutter and Sasuke, cool and calm as always, but with a particular glimmer in his eyes and a faint smile dancing across his lips.

She watched them smile shyly at each other, holding hands, Gaara in the background droning he'd known all along and that they hadn't been subtle about it, and thought to herself, _To think everything started with some strangers showing up after a rant on my blog._

Life had a peculiar way of working out sometimes, that was for sure.

"Ma, what are you thinking about?" Naruto peered at her suspiciously. "You've got a weird smile on your face."

"Is that any way to talk to your mother?" she scoffed and cuffed him on the back of his head, ignoring his whining. "Just that I'm happy for you two, that's all."

"Thanks, mum," he smiled and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Now why don't I make a cake for us to celebrate you two being together?" she suggested cheerfully and clapped her hands before getting up.

"As long as you don't post it on your blog – don't want people to think they need to show up to some kind of party again," he teased her, kissing Sasuke before following her into the kitchen.

"Aw why not? I think my blog that time ended up having some pretty good results, hm?" she retorted and winked, nudging his shoulder. "Like the two guys sitting in my living room right now."

He blushed and looked away. "You're awful, mum," he complained, but his big smile betrayed him.

"I know, I'm a very awful mum," she deadpanned and started putting the ingredients on the counter. "Now come help your awful mum with the cake. YOU TWO, GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE AND HELP US!"

As Sasuke and Gaara trooped into the kitchen, already arguing who would do which task, she started humming to herself.

Yeah, a pretty good feeling, all right.

**The End**

* * *

**AN2: Apologies if the ending is weird - weird endings seem to be my thing *coughs***

**I hope you enjoyed this oneshot! Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me!**

**I hope to see you all back in my future stories!**

**Cuddles**

**Melissa**

**P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.**


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